


red handed

by purple_umbrella



Category: Gintama
Genre: F/M, Okita visits a brothel, but don't let that fool you I write fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 03:17:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18842524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purple_umbrella/pseuds/purple_umbrella
Summary: He hated that the lights of this district were red, because, inevitably, that would mean his mind would drift back to her. And she was precisely who he was trying to avoid.Or Okita visits a brothel to help get a certain someone off his pathetic mind.





	red handed

He hated that the lights of this district were red, because, inevitably, that would mean his mind would drift back to _her_. And she was precisely who he was trying to avoid.

But his surroundings bathed in the red light and he pressed on, the image of red making him think of the hemline of her blouse, riding up during their last tussle and exposing the pale skin of her waist. Of cheeks reddened from exhaustion. Of blood, dripping from her brow, her nose, her knees. Of cherry lips and the scent of pickled seaweed mixed with strawberry conditioner. He shut his eyes, the image of Kagura sticking out her tongue flashed in his mind and, reflexively, his hand shot out against the nearest building--a dozen splintered cracks staring back at him.

Yes, everything about her was red except her eyes which were as blue as his balls.

Okita Sougo growled and removed his fist from the wall. A shivering cabaret girl clutched a stack of flyers to her chest--her eyes wide.

He grunted. “Send the bill to the Shinsengumi.”

She nodded, once, and he slipped inside the first brothel he found.

It was a warm, classy looking place. The small splattering of women inside promised a fairly vanilla menu. It wasn’t a secret he was an S, but he’d found lately when he wanted something rough, he’d turn to one of the few girls strong enough to take him. Not in that way, of course. _She_ wouldn’t… It had never been like that, he just... 

“Can I help you, Officer?” one of the ladies sang. She was a tall, lithe woman with a shock of dark hair. At her side, a slim girl smiled shyly at him. She was a total Loli. Younger than he was, and definitely…

She caught him staring and closed the distance between them. Her smile was adorable, and her eyes blue.

So blue.

If he squinted, he could probably pretend… _No_. Okita’s body went rigid. He didn’t want a substitute. He didn’t want to have to pretend. If he were going to do this, he wanted something completely different.

His gaze shifted across the room, landing on tall, busty woman.A curt nod was all it took, and she led him to a room and began to undress. She was older than him. Sexy, nothing _cute_ about her. Definitely not his type. Nothing like Kagura.

He stilled again. “Fucking hell…” he muttered before slapping his payment on the dresser beside the bed. Even with something different, his mind couldn’t stop from drifting far from her.

“We didn’t even have sex yet,” the woman exclaimed, her eyes wide with confusion.

His shoulders were tense. “I know.” And then he left the brothel.

Barely two steps from the door, and there she was. A clenched fist resting on her hip, her faithful monster dog at her side. Her eyes burning with hate, a special brand she always seemed to reserve just for him.

“Having a good night, Sadist?” her haughty voice carried in the night.

Sougo scowled. “‘S fine.”

Her blue eyes darted toward the brothel he’d just departed and he kept his expression aloof.

“That place isn’t as kinky as I’d expect from a pervert like you. Didn’t find anything to your liking?”

“No.”

And, because he wasn’t the type to enjoy torturing himself, he continued walking, pretending he couldn’t feel her eyes boring holes into the back of his head. He wasn’t an M. He didn’t want to see her more than he already had to, but a heavy sigh escaped his lungs and he found himself backtracking toward the girl who’d come to occupy far too many of his thoughts. Because given the choice between spending time with her and ignoring her, he’d always come to prefer the former.

She wasn’t where he’d seen her last, but those who couldn’t come up with many flattering things to say about him could at the very least add persistence to the impossibly short list of his good qualities. Just yesterday he’d waited three hours beneath the floorboards in an attempt to off Hijikata, after all.

Okita didn’t see the vile girl anywhere, and with a sigh, he slipped between the gap between two buildings to cut a shortcut back to the Shinsengumi compound when he spotted her, back against the wall, both hands against her face, and she was…

“What’s wrong with you, monster-girl?”

Her hands ripped from her face, and his usual mask of indifference slipped for the barest of moments. Was she… crying?

“China…”

“What, idiot sadist?” she snapped. And despite her tears, her glare was fire.

He swallowed, adam’s apple bobbing, before tossing all his chips on the table. “Tell me you don’t like me.”

“Feh! Easy. I loathe you. I hate you. You are scum on my shoe, the bane of my existence, the--”

“We’ve established that you _dislike_ me.” He exhaled. “But tell me you don’t like me.”

She blinked. “Are you hard of hearing or just an idiot, Sadist? I just said, ‘I hate you,’ yes? Let’s take you to the animal hospital and get your ears checked. Maybe we’ll have to put you down while we’re there.”

“Say, _Sougo, I do not like you. Romantically._ ”

She wanted to laugh rudely in his face, but instead she flushed scarlet. “Sadist arsehole, I do not... My feelings are…” For a too-long moment, Kagura studied his features, those maroon eyes she couldn’t read, the way the wind ruffled his hair and she wanted to puke because she felt... things… For longer than she could remember, those stupid emotions had been there, and despite trying to beat them out by beating him up, it was... “My feelings are complicated.”

Sougo smiled at her. A cruel smile, possibly. It was difficult to tell. She didn’t wipe her face though, and she was sure her nose had leaked snot because she wasn’t a particularly beautiful or demure crier like the girls in the dramas she liked to watch.

“Come with me,” Sougo asked--no, demanded.

She frowned at him. “No.”

He continued to watch her, insides pathetically light with joy. For the first time, he knew this horrible pull he had to the alien girl wasn’t as one-sided as he’d let himself believe.

“I’ll buy you dango.”

Her stomach betrayed her by grumbling.

“This isn’t a date though.”

“No?” he asked, a brow lifting in question the only shift in his otherwise deadpan expression.

“No. It’d be too weird, going on a date with someone who’d just fucked someone else in a brothel. I’m a maiden with standards, yes?”

“Tsk. So crude.” But his skin prickled because Kagura was a plethora of contradiction. Sweet and crass. Frail and strong. Pale and bright. Blue and red.

And because he wanted her to know, he said, “I didn’t sleep with anyone there.”

“Oh? Visiting the brothel on business,” she drawled, sarcasm dripping from her tone. Thick like honey but with none of its sweetness.

His hand came to rest on the hilt of his sword, his shoulder against the side of the building. “No. I was intending on sleeping with someone but it didn’t work out.”

There was a pause, and she told her dog he could go home without her because she was going to milk the filthy tax-robber for every cent he had on dango.

He knew for a fact she’d never paid a cent in taxes, but he bit his tongue and bought her food and they walked the length of the street. He ate and watched the light of the district play off her pale shoulders. She ate and ate and ate.

And he just watched her, knowing a decent man should be disgusted by the display, by how she tossed her skewer in the trash with a belch, but knowing he wasn’t disgusted nor was he a decent man. No other creature like her existed in a place like this, afterall, and he’d always managed to somehow spend time at her side.

Kagura broke the silence. “So, why didn’t it work out?”

“Hm?” He frowned. What had they been talking about?

She wiped the corner of her mouth where a bit of food lingered. “The prostitute.”

“Oh. Because she didn’t look like you.”

Honesty, at least. He watched the confusion twist and tug her features. And because he liked torturing her, he continued, “I thought about one that did look a little like you, but it wouldn’t be the real thing.”

Kagura just stared at him. Blue eyes wide, mouth agape.

“You’re an idiot, Sadist.”

He smiled, and it lit his red eyes with a passion that made her heart bruise.

“Probably.”

“Definitely,” she corrected.

“I’m not going to sleep with you.” _Just yet,_ hung unsaid in the air, but he pretended he didn’t hear it.

“Were you crying because you thought I’d slept with someone else?”

“As though I’d ever be jealous over an ugly lug like you.” She crossed her arms. “No. I was just upset for the poor girl who had to have you writhing above her.”

He was tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted, and with a heavy sigh to clear his lungs, Sougo admitted, “Kagura. I like you.”

She had to tilt her head up to look at him, and tapped down on the urge to slam her elbow into his gut for being so much taller than she was.

“If you’d like, I’ll buy you dango again. Maybe dorayaki.”

“All the cute girls are into crepes now, idiot Sadist.”

He smirked. “Fine then. If that’s what it takes.”

“You’re an asshole, you know?”

“I know.”

Kagura’s lips pursed. “Okay. But you’re going to pay extra for all the toppings.”

His hand slipped into hers and her smaller hand gave his a squeeze.

“I wouldn’t dare deprive a monster like you of something you wanted.”

Kagura harrumphed, the red lights playing off her skin, her hand still fitted in his own. For a moment, all was right in his little corner of Edo. If she’d let him, he’d keep it this way.


End file.
